Greece's Papademos seek on debt deal by end of week

BRUSSELS Jan 31 Greek Prime Minister
Lucas Papademos said negotiators had made "significant progress"
in talks to strike a restructuring deal for Greek government
debt, with the aim of having a definitive agreement by the end
of this week.

"Significant progress has been made in talks about private
sector involvement," Papademos told reporters early on Tuesday
following a meeting with senior officials from the European
Central Bank and the EU after an EU leaders' summit.

"We are seeking to conclude negotiations with the troika by
the end of the week," he said, referring to the team of analysts
from the ECB, the European Commission and the International
Monetary Fund who are responsible for monitoring Greece's
progress in meeting budget deficit targets.

Papademos said the major sticking points to be agreed with
the troika were on deeper spending cuts and labour market
reforms.

Those commitments, together with a deal with private sector
bondholders on taking a 50 percent face-value writedown on the
near 200 billion euros of Greek bonds they hold, are needed
before the troika can sign off on a second rescue package for
Greece.

That aid package, which is expected to total 130 billion
euros but could be more, depending on the extent of the private
sector deal, needs to be finalised by mid-February, giving
Greece time to meet a looming 14.5 billion euro bond repayment
in March.

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